State Watch

WHAT’S UP IN SACRAMENTO - Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is very gingerly lifting the restrictions on personal behavior that were imposed to counter the omicron surge of COVID-19 — particularly the requirement to wear masks inside public places.

CALIFORNIA MATTERS - As we gear up for what will likely be another challenging summer, millions of families will have to make the unthinkable choice between keeping the lights on, paying their rent, buying groceries or paying for their prescriptions.

CALIFORNIA POLITICS - Governor Newsom made a self-imposed pledge to dismantle San Quentin's  California's Death Row for good and transfer all of  the death row inmates to one of 7 other California state prison facilities and place them in their general prison population. 

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA - On February 13, the most watched event in America visits its birthplace, California.

LABOR VIEW - The question was deceptively simple, California State Controller Betty Yee remembers, yet it arose again and again as she and other leaders pondered the future of the state’s workforce.

BEING OF SERVICE - If you want to serve the people of California, is public office the best place for you?

CALIFORNIA MATTERS - The single biggest challenge facing California small businesses: Labor shortages.

COMMENTARY - This newly released report examines how the California dream can be restored for California's middle- and working-class families. An excerpt follows:

CAL MATTERS - While it deals with the stubborn COVID-19 pandemic, California is also contending with a smorgasbord of equally resilient social pathologies, including chronic illness, homelessness, poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness and street crime.

BUSINESS WATCH - Clogged supply chains. Hiring struggles. New mask rules. A virus that trampled right over return-to-work schedules. Last year was chaotic for many businesses across California.

CALIFORNIA MATTERS - Splashy headlines, viral videos and fear of lawlessness have spurred the beginnings of a proverbial pendulum swing in California. 

CALIFORNIA MATTERS - The first Europeans to visit California were Spanish explorers who assumed it was an island and named it for a fictional island in a 16th century Spanish novel, occupied by a band of woman warriors led by a queen named Calafia.

CALIFORNIA HIGHWAYS - Don’t ever complain about freeway traffic, especially around my mother.

STATE OF THE STATE - Yet California is not doomed, at least in the near term, nor is it anything like a model of social democracy.

CALIFORNIA MATTERS - California is a state of contrasts. On the one hand, it is flush with a $31 billion budget surplus from the gains of the rich, enabling it to spend record amounts on schools and health care.

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA - When is California going to stop playing COVID games?

CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR - Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2018 universal care, saying there was “no reason to wait…I’m tired of politicians saying they support single-payer but that it’s too soon, too expensive or someone else’s problem.”

CALIFORNIA FINANCIAL BOOKS - As we approach the end of 2021, California’s problems have become an embarrassing example of failure in management from the supply chain crisis to high rates of COVID despite draconian measures up and down the state on masks and vaccines.

ENERGY POLITICS - California can claim to be an international leader in energy. Or California can close its last operating nuclear power plant. But it can’t do both.

CRIME WATCH - When it comes to law and order, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants California voters to know that he feels your pain — no matter what the statistics say.

COMMENTARY - Hey, President Biden: Did California’s invitation to your Summit for Democracy get lost by your failing postal service?